Absentee and Semi-Absentee Franchise Ownership Options

On a routine basis, I am asked if it’s possible to successfully own a franchise business while keeping a job. The perception is that you can only do one thing or the other, and that Job and Business are somehow mutually exclusive. The truth is, you can own a franchise while working a job, and there are two different ways of doing it:

Absentee Franchise Ownership is the act of owning a franchise business without working there. Instead, you hire a team of experts to handle the day-to-day operations.

Semi-Absentee Franchise Ownership is owning your own franchise business, and contributing minimally to the day-to-day operations. (Think: a few hours each week.)

As women, we multi-task every day without exclusion of income generating opportunities. When it comes to keeping your job and owning a franchise, it’s not a matter of IF it’s possible, but rather HOW to do it.

Major Change That Doesn’t Mean Changing The Things You Love Most

Think about it this way: if you have a spouse, kids, job, and hobbies, you should be a business owner. Why? Because you are already juggling and delegating.

Remember when your first child arrived, and you gave it all of your time and energy? Your world revolved around the little bundle of joy. But you didn’t just become a parent and give up everything else. Like me, you were dividing your efforts while keeping your house in order. Somehow everyone got love and attention, and you figured out how to make sure everyone survived, thrived, and got to do fun stuff along the way.

I bought my first business when I was in my early 30s. I already had a full-time job, was married, started a family, and had a lot of fun hobbies. My most valued hobbies were pilates, high-speed driving events, and long weekends on the prairie with chainsaws and tractors. And when I became a business owner, I didn’t quit doing a single thing.

Yes, I needed to adjust a few things to make sure that what brought me joy continued to be an active part of my life, but I wanted to make the most of what business ownership had to offer. Flexibility and freedom were at the top of my list to achieve work/life balance.

Being In Business For Yourself Doesn’t Mean Being In Business By Yourself

Every stage of life brings new distractions. (When are we NOT busy?) Timing is everything, and there are some events that make even a passive investment unwise. But even in those most challenging moments, you surround yourself with helpers, and that’s what owning a franchise is like: Being in business for yourself, but not by yourself. A rule of thumb it is that you must be completely honest with yourself about your enthusiasm and energy to stay the course, even when there are distractions.

Let Your Passions Be Your Prosperity

People talk about owning something you’re passionate about. I find great joy in making more money, employing people with great jobs. It is not about the widget, it is about helping people find a great job or career and building it alongside them. For me, building this wealth means diversification with strategies that match my own personal and financial bandwidth. Being financially secure gives me options and expanding my net worth has always brought a great deal of personal satisfaction. The key to making sure you experience this same self-satisfaction is finding the right option(s) to diversify, so that you can continue to do more and earn more.

Three Things To Consider When Entering Franchise Ownership

The first thing you need to consider is WHY you want to invest in a business. What key benefits are you expecting to gain and when? Knowing why you want to invest will help you focus your daily activities on what will be most effective in achieving your desired outcome. Determine your short and long-term goals so that your vision is clear as to how this diversification will strengthen your portfolio.

The second thing you need to consider is the strength of the franchise system and its technology backbone. Many franchise brands are created by serial entrepreneurs who already operate multiple businesses, so from the top down, or from the ground up, these founders require immediate gratification of knowing how the business is operating every minute of the day. If you are going to diversify, that same information technology will allow you to monitor, in real time, all aspects of the day-to-day operations, productivity, marketing, inventory, etc.

Another consideration for a passive investment is whether the franchisor has other owners who are diversified or passive. You have a much higher probability for success if the system itself is designed for you to be an interloper, hire “industry experts,” and not be present on a regular basis. For example, any system that encourages a multiple-unit investment is telling you that their infrastructure is in place to allow you to manage remotely. I represent dozens of brands that actively seek busy people for ownership because the franchisor knows that busy people are decisive and delegate responsibility. Busy people are likely to be organized and efficient, and thus prove more successful at hiring and training better employees to shoulder the day-to-day responsibility for operations.

The Next Step: Have A Conversation

As you consider whether or not business ownership is in your future, I hope you will “lean in” and have a conversation with me. I’ve worked with hundreds of people who have successfully taken the leap, by finding exactly the right investment to achieve their goals. Your point of view is unique, and I want to hear what YOU want to protect (your money, life balance, etc.) so that together we can navigate through a research project to land on exactly the right concept.

Find out how you can keep your job and own a franchise business. Contact me so we can start our conversation today.

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Over the course of my life, writing has been a passion. I think it is also part of my DNA, so I come by it naturally. As a franchise consultant who advises investor groups and individuals on making carefully researched business decisions, and being “a student of humanity” with a counseling background, I have spent my career understanding the psychology of business investing. No one escapes the fear of making a bad decision, and every person has a point of view that enlightens my navigational skills with others.

Writing about that helps me to sharpen my focus on what makes people happy and motivated to move forward with a decision, or what creates fear and uncertainty that holds them back.

Forbes Coaches Council is a collection of business professionals with valuable insights and excellent writing talent (and editing!). I am thrilled to be associated with this esteemed publication and its readership.